Israeli Olympic team members killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics were remembered during the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony on Friday with a moment of silence.
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This was the first time since the tragedy that the 11 Israeli Olympians were commemorated in the games.
The move was welcomed by relatives of the victims, some of whom were in the stadium, and by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
"I welcome this important and historic moment. May their memory be blessed," Bennett wrote on Twitter.
The families of the 11 athletes killed had long asked the International Olympic Committee to hold a minute's silence at a Games opening ceremony but had been turned down for almost half a century.
"We, the Olympic community, also remember all the Olympians and members of our community who have so sadly left us, in particular, we remember those who lost their lives during the Olympic Games," said an announcer during the opening ceremony.
"One group still holds a strong place in all our memories and stand for all those we have lost at the games - the members of the Israeli delegation at the Olympic Games Munich 1972," the announcer added as the stadium darkened and a soft blue light illuminated parts of the arena.
On Sept. 5, 1972, members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage at the poorly secured athletes' village by Palestinian gunmen from the Black September terrorist group.
Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and a German policeman were dead after a standoff and subsequent rescue effort erupted into gunfire. The IOC at the time decided not to stop or interrupt the Games
"Justice has finally been done for the husbands, fathers and sons who were murdered in Munich," widows Ilana Romano and Ankie Spitzer, who watched the ceremony in the stadium, said in a statement. They lost their husbands – weightlifter Yossef Romano and fencing coach Andre Spitzer –in the attack.
"We went through 49 years of struggle and never gave up. [We] can't stop the tears from flowing. For this moment we waited," they said.
Culture and Sports Minister Hili Tropper said the moment of commemoration was "historic justice".
"The Tokyo Olympics have just opened, but they are already a historic Olympics culture and sport – after 49 years, on the main stage, at the opening ceremony, the 11 heroes, the victims of the Munich Olympics, were mentioned," he said. "Better late than never."
The inclusion of a moment of silence was also welcomed by the March of the Living, an international Holocaust memorial organization that campaigns against antisemitism, saying it was "long overdue."
The Tokyo Games were ushered in on Friday afternoon as Japan's global superstar Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron to mark the start of Tokyo 2020, in an opening ceremony shorn of glitz and overshadowed by a pandemic but defined by hope, tradition and gestures of diversity.
Postponed by a year due to the coronavirus, the Games are being held without spectators in a city under a COVID-induced state of emergency, as many other parts of the globe also still struggle with a resurgence of cases.
Athletes, the vast majority wearing masks, paraded through an eerily silent National Stadium where flagbearers for the first time were both men and women and the Canadian delegation marched with rainbow badges on their uniforms in support of the LGBTQ community.
In its journey through the stadium, the torch was passed from Olympic champions to baseball legends – one born in Taiwan – a doctor and a nurse, a Paralympian, and children from parts of Japan hit badly by the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.
It was finally handed to Osaka, the 23-year-old four-time tennis grand slam champion whose background as the daughter of a Haitian man and Japanese woman reflects the changes and slowly growing diversity coming to a once ethnically homogeneous country.
"Undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honor I will ever have in my life," Osaka wrote in a tweet. "I have no words to describe the feelings I have right now but I do know I am currently filled with gratefulness and thankfulness."
Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said in his opening speech addressing the athletes, "The lesson we learned is we need more solidarity – more solidarity among societies, and solidarity within societies."
But the shift towards greater inclusiveness has not come without stumbles. Tokyo 2020 has been hit by a string of scandals, including the exit of senior officials over derogatory comments about women, Holocaust jokes and bullying.
Normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities, the ceremony was low-key, with fewer than 1,000 people in attendance, strict social distancing rules and signs calling on spectators to "be quiet around the venue."
Opening with videos showing empty streets around the world and an athlete training alone in darkness, it also included drones hovering over Tokyo's National Stadium in the shape of the Olympic logo morphing into planet earth and a global performance via videolink of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Imagine."
"With the world in a tough situation because of the coronavirus pandemic, I would like to pay my respect and express my gratitude to medical workers and all those who are working hard every day to overcome the difficulties," said local organizing committee President Seiko Hashimoto.
The ceremony climaxed with a fusion of traditional kabuki theater – with its elaborate makeup and costumes – and a jazz piano improvisation, on a stage topped with the cauldron for the Olympic flame.
The opening also featured fireworks in indigo and white, the colors of the Tokyo 2020 emblem, and gave a nod to Japanese tradition represented by giant wooden Olympic rings linked to the 1964 Games, which the city also hosted.
A moment of silence was held "for all those family and friends we have lost," especially to COVID-19. The Israeli athletes slain at the 1972 Munich Games were also remembered
Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Bach, both masked, cheered on the athletes after bowing to each other before sitting down.
"Today is a moment of hope. Yes, it is very different from what all of us imagined. But finally we are all here together," said Bach.
Unlike his grandfather who opened the 1964 Games with a Japanese word that means "congratulations," Naruhito opted for a more neutral word in Japanese that is closer to "commemorate."
The ceremony was marked by major absences, including former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who wooed the Games to Tokyo. Top sponsors also stayed away, highlighting strong opposition to the event within COVID-fatigued Japan.
Only a third of Japanese have had even one dose of vaccines, prompting worries the Games could become a super-spreader event. More than 100 people involved with the Olympics have already tested positive.
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